Pearl River

Mayor

Mayor

Pearl River , Louisiana

Board Memberships and Affiliations

Board Member

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A new state audit shows Pearl River Mayor James Lavigne and two other town officials allegedly used public resources for personal gain.

The Legislative Auditor's report released Monday prompted the six-term mayor to issue a 10-page response, saying the audit is a political attack.

The New Orleans Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/1tL3AMr ) Lavigne, Town Clerk Diane Bennett and Police Chief Bennie Raynor were singled out in the report, which looked at spending from December 2011 to July 2013.

James Lavigne, the former mayor of Pearl River, Louisiana, ended 2014 with a bang.According to the New Orleans Advocate, Lavigne had a rough year that included an indictment, questions about his spending, and losing an election after six terms in office.Lavigne's farewell speech on New Year's Eve was no less eventful.
The newspaper reported the mayor called for an "emergency" meeting of the local Board of Aldermen on Wednesday to give his final address.He was surprised when reporters began showing up and started "demanding" to know how they found out about the meeting.

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"Facebook can kiss my ass, and you too and Channel 4 news," Lavigne responded.
After encouraging Facebook and the local media to embrace his posterior, Lavigne reportedly got into his car and drove away.
A member of the Board of Aldermen then read his speech, which the Advocate said was "five pages of single-spaced copy" and included his explanation for his spending.

Mayor James Lavigne, who is running for his seventh term under a cloud of scrutiny over his management of the town, detailed in a long, scathing legislative auditor's investigative report, says it's something he's taking advantage of.

"Well, it's for the town really," he said, "You don't want somebody that don't live in your town running your town.
David McQueen, a longtime alderman who's now running for mayor due to recent criticism of the town, some of which started with a series of Eyewitness reports, voted against a similar attempt last election cycle in 2010, but gave the measure its first 'yes' vote this time around.

He says conversations with constituents changed his mind and sees it as protecting the town, not helping individual campaigns.
"It might look that way, I'm sorry it does, but that ain't why we passed it, I can tell you that," he said.

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Lavigne and McQueen say they've been told investigators with the Ethics Board will be starting their own investigation into the report's findings soon.